Seven years into a public-corruption investigation by the FBI, federal officials have netted 20 convictions and indicted 13 more people -- including four who were arrested on Friday.

The convictions and indictments have touched former elected officials, county government, school districts, business leaders and lawyers and have stained El Paso County's image.

Several experts said the latest arrests may not end a culture of corruption.

"You won't know it until you don't have it anymore," said Peter J. Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who writes the White Collar Watch column for the New York Times' Dealbook.

Henning is familiar with the El Paso investigation, in which officials have been accused of rigging bids, taking kickbacks and stealing from schoolchildren.

Indictments unsealed on Friday charge that former elected officials rigged a contract for the county's financial services and plundered federal grant money intended for families with mentally ill children.

The drumbeat of indictments and convictions has left many in the public jaded.

"They all should be run out of town," a caller to the El Paso Times said in a voice message on Saturday.

"They're no better than the people across the border running the drug cartels. The citizens of El Paso County are paying their salaries, and they sit there and rob the county."

That outrage is a healthy development, said Richard Schwein, who was agent in charge of the local FBI office from 1987 until 1994.

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"I think the citizenry is more aware of this, and hopefully people running for office are, too," he said.

Gregory Rocha, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that's a key to cleaning up corruption.

"The public has to be more atuned and more aware of what's going on," he said. He said an aware public will hold officials accountable.

But Rocha added that a one-party political system has inherent problems, no matter which party is in control. He said political winners do not receive full public scrutiny when one party is dominant.

Henning said it's good that raids and indictments generate headlines because it spreads the message that corruption won't be tolerated.

"That's the message you want to send," he said. "The question is 'Do they hear it?' "

On Friday, former County Judge Anthony Cobos was arrested at his home and is accused of taking bribes in the refinancing of $40 million in county debt.

As he sits in the county jail, Cobos is facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years on each of three counts filed against him. The indictment says at least three bribes of $1,500 were involved.

"Would you sell your career for five grand?" Henning asked.

"They (elected officials) work hard and they don't get paid a lot, so some of them feel entitled to whatever they can get," Henning said.

Some elected officials convince themselves that their services benefit themselves and the public at the same time -- that they are taking a small payment for hatching, say, a bond deal that saves the public big money, he said

"Once you can convince that person in the mirror every morning, you can go convince everybody else," Henning said.

Prosecuting corruption in public view is crucial to changing the political culture, the experts said.

But many of the documents in the El Paso investigation have been sealed by court order.

Former county Chief of Staff Travis Ketner was sentenced earlier this year, but documents describing that sentence were sealed.

That might be because Ketner is in the federal witness protection program, Schwein said.

"You'd never hear about that," he said.

Henning also said federal officials have to tread a sensitive line because public corruption cases usually involve community leaders.

In the indictments unsealed Friday, former County Judge Dolores Briones allegedly took $24,000 in bribes and kickbacks to steer a $550,000 contract to LKG Enterprises Inc. The company's owner, Ruben "Sonny" Garcia, and his associate Cirilo "Chilo" Madrid were charged with 11 counts including conspiracy, theft and embezzlement of federal funds and depravation of honest services.

The document does not say whether Briones, the sister of Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, was charged.

Dolores Briones is probably getting special treatment, but not the kind she wants, Henning said. "D.C. is going to have some input into that," he said, referring to U.S. Department of Justice headquarters.

"Prosecutors have to go slow with that."

Henning said he believes the FBI might be more careful in an investigation of somebody related to a federal judge, but no less likely to prosecute her because of that relationship.

For the culture to really change, Henning said, a new generation of officials must be swept into office.

Something like that might have happened as a group of young officials were elected to the City Council and the County Commissioners Court just when the FBI investigation heated up in 2005.

People who vote ultimately are to blame, said Anthony Martinez, an El Paso native who worked for local politicians and started Newspaper Tree to tell "a part of that story every week."